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Courtesy Copper Town Construction
Dream Weavers
Building the Lake Superior home of Brad and Karen King remains one of Jeff Twardzik’s favorite projects. Besides getting to work on this home of his best friend, Jeff enjoyed the challenge of the large log structure.
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Courtesy Copper Town Construction
Dream Weaver
The interior of the Kings’ home features an expansive great-room entrance and a chandelier designed and built by the homeowner.
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Courtesy Copper Town Construction
Dream Weaver
Jeff Twardzik enjoys working with logs because the logs themselves dictate specifics on each project, whether an addition on this Copper Harbor log home...
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Courtesy Dapple-Gray B&B
Dream Weaver
... or fashioning a log mansion like the Dapple-Gray B&B, near Copper Harbor.
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Courtesy Copper Town Construction
Dream Weaver
Jeff and wife, Cindy, plan to concentrate work now on their 1905 Calumet home with its Jacobsville sandstone base.
You might say that Jeff Twardzik is a special kind of magician. He turns back-of-napkin sketches and ideas into dream homes, newly constructed or freshly remodeled.
Since 2000 when he started Copper Town Construction in his Keweenaw Peninsula hometown of Copper Harbor, Jeff has built about 15 homes in the region and done remodeling on dozens more.
Most of the projects, he says, started with conversations over a dining table, maybe jotting down thoughts on napkins with a pen.
“They would explain their dreams to me, and I would kind of go back and forth on paper,” Jeff says. “I was their brush, and they were the artist, I guess.”
Looking at Jeff’s work, you know he has a bit of poet in his soul. He’s tackled projects modest to magnificent, with a fondness for log and timber-frame homes, like the Dapple-Gray B&B. “Those really were my favorites, I think, because it never looked the same. And you had to try to take that rough material and try to make it look refined and finished.”
Jeff’s building philosophy balances poetic and practical, a natural tendency for someone who grew up at the family’s Pine Resort in Copper Harbor. “I learned how to turn a wrench and pound a nail,” Jeff says of working at his parents’ resort.
Jeff’s a true Keweenaw kid, attending Copper Harbor’s one-room school until sixth grade, moving on to Calumet for the remaining grades and finally getting a civil engineering degree from Michigan Tech University. He moved for a time to Alaska but returned to live closer to home when his brother was killed in an accident.
No longer working full time as Copper Town Construction, Jeff has a “day job” handling supplies for Portage Health hospital.
Jeff is still working on a few building projects and has six solid tips for those planning next year’s home remodels or constructions.
1. Hire a contractor by January of the year you want work done.
“Have a quality contractor set up right now for this year,” Jeff advises. “There’s not a lot of them, and they’re going to be taken. … I always felt badly for people who approached me in May saying, ‘I want a home this year.’ A lot of times, my booking would be two or three years out.”
Remember, Jeff adds, there is usually no reason to rush a project unless you are replacing a home lost by fire or disaster. Take your time and envision exactly what you want with a contractor, designer or architect.
2. Choose a contractor you trust.
It seems obvious, but many people don’t take time to get to know their home builder and designer. Jeff advises that you do.
Ask friends to recommend people with whom they’ve worked. When you find someone you like, ask to see other, perhaps similar, projects. You need to trust the person in charge of your work because of the curves that likely will be thrown into any large project. Also, estimates for major projects are rarely definitive, so you need to trust that you’re being given the best bang for your buck. “I used to always laugh … when they asked for a concrete number,” says Jeff, who knew to expect unexpected challenges.
Spending time with homeowners was “the best part of everything I did,” says Jeff. “Minus none, they were all great. I was just blessed just to get to know the people.”
3. Work out project specifics, including materials.
“If I was doing the hiring on a contractor coming in to do some work, I’d have a demand of very specific material and its placement – almost a flow chart,” Jeff says.
Writing out specifics means no accidental misunderstanding as the project progresses from general discussion to specific construction. Have the contractor indicate on paper, for example, that the kitchen countertop will be granite, the ceiling trim will be oak or the flooring will be maple, Jeff suggests.
Knowing exact materials – like whether you choose marble or stone – makes for more accurate cost estimates, too. “All of those things, they just cost more. It was a lesson for me; I tried to be up-front as possible.”
4. Realize changes mean more time, more money and redone work.
Most home projects usually encounter one or two modifications once started. That’s normal, says Jeff, but homeowners need to understand how that could alter the timetable and the cost. He strongly urges that any changes to the original plan should require a discussion and then an on-paper revision with additional price estimates signed by both the homeowner and contractor.
“It takes out a lot of gray area,” Jeff says, “and when the changes come through, you’re prepared.”
Sometimes late changes can affect work already completed. Something as seemingly simple as a last-minute decision to make the kitchen counter granite rather than laminate, for example, might require redesigning the cabinets that hold it. A laminate surface weighs much less than granite and can wrap over a base whereas granite is a flat, no-wrap surface.
5. Keep up a dialogue with your contractor.
Anyone who has remodeled an older home will tell you, surprises are no surprise … unless you aren’t talking with your contractor.
Jeff recalls times when a quirk in a home’s original construction might dictate a wall where a door was planned or some other change in the vision. For any remodeling he did, Jeff says, he would meet every few days or weeks for a session with the homeowners to explain “this is what we’ve discovered, this is where we are heading.”
One of his most skeptical clients, Jeff says, was a World War II veteran whose childhood home in Eagle River needed remodeling. Jeff was hired by the home’s current owner, the man’s son, but Jeff felt the need to work with the father, too, after meeting him at the man’s 98th birthday party.
“He and I spent some time together in that house. I said I would do the things that he wanted done, and I think that made it all OK. Trust, that was the whole deal at the end of all of that. That was a pretty special thing that I got to do.”
6. Freshen your home with inexpensive changes.
Jeff advises that not all remodeling needs to knock out walls or add expensive additions.
“Try something as simple as paint,” Jeff advises. “Trim and paint details can change everything, and it’s very affordable.” An accent color on one wall, for instance, can change the atmosphere of a living room.
Refinishing a floor can “make it look brand-new,” he adds.
Less expensive changes to small structural details can help, too. You might open space by turning a wall into a half-wall or making a door into an archway. “Those aren’t huge deals or very very expensive.”
Jeff is familiar with such projects. Although semi-retired from construction, he’s taken on the task of his own historic 1905 Jacobsville sandstone home in Calumet.
“My wife, Cindy, and I live in a home that was built in the turn of the century. I’m one of those ‘money pit’ jobs,” he chuckles.
Already, though, he’s found a treasure in a challenge. Disturbed by an odd space in the house, he recently discovered an old curved, 10-foot-wide porch that had been completely covered over with “cheesy” sheet rock. Even for a seasoned contractor, Jeff says, such a discovery “was unbelievable.”
This discovery has quickly become Cindy’s favorite hang-out spot with coffee and a good book.
“My favorite remodel project so far is opening up the front porch. It had been enclosed for many years – the beautiful Jacobsville sandstone all hidden behind paneling and walls,” she says, adding, “If we look on the bright side, I guess it was protected from the elements!”
Cindy, a teacher, is researching the home’s history and learned it was built for John and Christina Dymock. “From what I was told by the previous owners, Dymock began his career as a butcher at Baer & Dymock. He was born in Scotland, raised in Canada and emigrated to the Copper Country in the early 1860s. His bride was Christina Brown, of Scottish descent, but born here, I believe.”
Even though their own home’s to-do and to-fix list is long for Jeff, Cindy is charmed already.
“I love our home. It still needs a lot of remodeling TLC, but it has so much character!”